Wall and foundation drain system

ABSTRACT

WATER ACCUMULATING IN THE SUPPORTING BED OF GRAVEL BENEATH A CELLAR FLOOR IS FORCED BY HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE LATERALLY INTO THE HOLLOW INTERIORS OF CEMENT OR CINDER BLOCKS THAT ARE MOUNTED ON FOUNDATION FOOTINGS TO CONSTITUTE THE BASE COURSE OF CONVENTIONAL HOLLOW CINDER BLODK CELLAR WALLS. THE WATER PASSES THROUGH SLOTS IN THE INNER SIDE WALLS OF THE BLOCKS AND THE INTERIORS OF THE BLOCKS ARE IN OPEN COMMUNICATION THROUGH SIMILAR SLOTS IN THE END WALLS OF THE BLOCKS.

Feb. 16, 1971 A. c. PAREZO WALL AND FOUNDATION DRAIN SYSTEM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F 119d y 9, 1969 &

FIG. 2

ATTORNEYQ Feb. 16, 1971 c, PAREZO I 3,562,982

WALL AND FOUNDATION DRAIN SYSTEM Fileq May 9, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet z i. 3 FIG. 4

5 Mr-i;- I7 23 i LI A FIG. 5

INVENTOR ALLEN C. PAREZO ATTORNEYS,

United States Patent O 3,562,982 WALL AND FOUNDATION DRAIN SYSTEM Allen C. Parezo, 16112 Laurel Ridge Drive, Laurel, Md. 20810 Filed May 9, 1969, Ser. No. 823,286 Int. Cl. E02d 27/00; E04b 1/64, 1/70 US. Cl. 52169 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Water accumulating in the supporting bed of gravel beneath a cellar floor is forced by hydrostatic pressure laterally into the hollow interiors of cement or cinder blocks that are mounted on foundation footings to constitute the base course of conventional hollow cinder block cellar walls. The Water passes through slots in the inner side walls of the blocks and the interiors of the blocks are in open communication through similar slots in the end walls of the blocks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field The present invention relates to systems and means for draining the foundation walls of masonry structures in which the side walls are comprised of conventional hollow cement or cinder blocks.

In the construction of dwellings and masonry structures having foundation walls constructed of conventional hollow blocks of the cement or cinder type seated on concrete footings, it is conventional and almost universal practice to provide a bed of gravel or crushed stone within the area circumscribed by the footings and which supports a basement floor slab of concrete or the like poured thereon. For various reasons well known to persons skilled in the art of building construction, water accumulates in the bottom course of the side wall blocks seated on the footings, and in the bed material beneath the floor, and seeps by capillary action and through cracks to the interior of the basement which, with no means for drainage therefrom, soon has a constantly wet floor and, at least, constantly damp walls. This condition is the wet basement problem that is the bane of the building con struction art.

Description of prior art Prior art efforts to provide side wall and foundation drainage generally have involved the use of a drainage tile disposed in the particulate material which constitutes the bed underlying the basement floor slab. Water accumulating in the bottom course blocks of the walls and in the bed material beneath the floor drains into the tile and flows or is pumped through the tile conduit to a remote point of disposal. U.S. Pats. 3,283,460 and 3,287,866 are representative of such systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Whereas in the prior art generally, and particularly in the systems of the noted representative patents, drainage is laterally from the interiors of bottom course blocks of the wall into the bed material beneath the floor and from there into a drain collection tile, in the present invention no drain collection tile is used and drainage is in the opposite direction; that is, from the bed material beneath the floor laterally into the interiors of the bottom course blocks of the wall through slots in the inner faces of the blocks. The hollow interiors of the blocks are themselves in open communication through similar slots in their end faces, so that water may not be trapped in any block and rise therein above the floor level but will, instead, be dissipated uniformly throughout the entire "'ice bottom course of blocks over the entire wall of the cellar so that it may evaporate readily in the currents of air that normally rise through the air space comprising the hollow communicating interiors of the upper blocks in the walls.

In localities in which the accumulation of water dis tributed throughout the communicating evaporation chambers of the bottom course blocks may exceed its rate of evaporation, one or more drain pipes may be passed through the outer faces of the bottom course blocks into their interiors to provide exterior run off. Furthermore, in cases of abnormal cellar flooding, one or more drain sumps may be installed in the floor for reception of pumps, with communication between the bottom block course interiors and the sump.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a complete bottom or base course of the hollow blocks of this invention mounted on the foundation footings of a building under construction, with part of the cellar floor broken away for illustration of detail.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view on line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an under face perspective view of a bottom course drain block.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top plan view, partly in section, illustrating an alternative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view substantially on line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention follows conventional practice in cellar (basement) construction to the extent that the floor area is circumscribed by concrete footings 10 supporting a bottom or base course 11 of hollow cinder or cement blocks 12 confining a bed 13 of gravel or other particulate material on which concrete is poured to provide a floor 14.

In the present invention, however, the base course blocks 12 are of the construction shown in FIG. 3. The body of the block is hollow and is open at its top and bottom, the interior being divided by a central partition 15 extending transversely between its inner and outer walls and providing a pair of hollow cores 16. Each end wall 17 of the block is so recessed that when the blocks are positioned in end to end abutting engagement as shown in FIG. 1 their opposed end recesses will provide spaces 18 similar to the cores 16. The outer wall 19 of the block presents a solid, imperforate outer face for reception of a conventional coating 20 of waterproofing material.

A feature of paramount importance in the present invention, and which is new in the art, is the provision of a plurality of parallel, narrow, vertical slots 21 in the inner wall 22, partition 15, and end walls 17 of each block 12. These slots open at their lower ends to the bottom face of the block and extend upwardly for approximately onethird of its height. They provide open and continuous communication between the entire series of the hollow cores 16 and the meeting end spaces 18 of the blocks; and at the same time they open the hollow interiors of the blocks to the gravel bed 13 beneath the floor, so that water accumulating beneath the floor nay be forced through the slots 21 in the inner walls of the blocks for dispersion into the evaporation chambers constituted by the cores 16 and end spaces 18.

Water of condensation on the interior surfaces of hollow blocks superimposed on the base course blocks 12 and water leaking through wall cracks will drain down into the communicating cores and end spaces of the base course and correspondingly add to water accumulated within the base course blocks through their inner wall 3 slots under hydrostatic pressure from Water in the floor bed 13. In order to avoid excess accumulation, an exterior runoff pipe 23 may be passed through the outer wall in communication with a block core 16 at one or more points, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4.

In localities subject to periodic heavy accumulation of ground surface water and subsurface saturation, provision of exterior run off pipes such as 23 may not be sufficient to prevent the ultimate ingress of water onto the cellar floor. In such case an alternative installation such as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. may be employed. This installation employs the same assembly of footings, base course blocks, floor bed and floor as shown in FIGS. 1-4, and in addition provides in the floor a drain sump 24 into which water accumulated in the blocks of the base course and floor bed may be delivered to the sump by one or more interior run off pipes 25 leading from the interior of the base course blocks to the interior of the sump. Water drained into the sump may be removed by conventional pump means 26 shown in phantom in FIG. 5.

Another important feature of the invention is the arrangement of the block slots 21. It is conventional in all block wall construction to apply a layer of mortar on the top face of the footing and to seat the base course blocks on the mortar. Usually the layer of mortar is thick, and it has been found that if relatively wide Openings on the order of the openings 11 shown in the blocks 12 of hereinbefore noted US. Pat. No. 3,287,866 are used the mortar rises in the openings and forms dams which trap water within the hollow cores of the blocks. As there is no open communication between the block interiors the water trapped within the blocks can rise to objectionable height above the floor level and seep through upper block walls onto the surface of the floor. In the present invention the width of each block slot 21 is so narrow that the thick, heavy mortar conventionally used (not here shown) cannot enter and rise in the slots, so that they are unobstructed at all times.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cellar structure having hollow block side 'walls encompassing a floor slab; a base course of blocks having their inner side walls extending beneath the floor slab, the bottom portions of the base course blocks including a plurality of narrow, vertical slots open at their bottoms to the bottom bearing faces of the blocks; the width of said slots being minute relative to the width of the block bearing surfaces therebetween so that the bottom bearing faces of said blocks are substantially structurally unaffected thereby, said slots being in the inner side wall and both end walls of each block and in open communication with each other around the entire cellar wall and with the area beneath said slab, means in communication with the interior of said hollow blocks and the exterior of the wall whereby water accumulating beneath said slab may be dissipated to the exterior of said wall.

2. In the system of claim 1, a water runoff pipe extending through the outer wall of at least one of the base course blocks in open communication with a hollow interior space thereof, said run off pipe projecting laterally outward from the outer wall of the block.

3. In the system of claim 1, a water collection sump in the floor and its bed; a pipe opening at one end into the interior space of a base course block and opening at its other end into the sump; and pump means for delivering water collected in the sump to a remote point of discharge externally of the base course blocks, whereby water accumulating in the interior of said blocks from the exterior of the wall may be exhausted through said pipe and sump.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,734,777 11/1929 Pike 52169 1,746,816 2/1930 Boes 52-607 2,911,818 11/1959 Smith 52606 3,017,722 l/1962 Smith 52-169 3,222,830 12/1965 Ivany 52607 3,283,460 11/1966 Patrick 52-169 3,287,866 11/1966 Bevilacqua 52169 3,426,487 2/1969 Forte 52-169 FOREIGN PATENTS 663,669 1938 Germany 52169 HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 52173, 303 

